Aboitiz Power overtakes Tiwi and Makiling-Banahaw geothermal power plants

Alexander Richter 25 May 2009

As reported locally, “government run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) on Monday (May 25, 2009) turned over the 289-megawatt (MW) Tiwi and 458.53-MW Makiling-Banahaw (MakBan) geothermal power plants to Aboitiz Power Corp. (APC).

During the turnover ceremonies, APC also gave the 40-percent downpayment for its bid offer, amounting to P8.286 billion. Aside from the downpayment, APC’s subsidiary AP Renewables also paid Psalm P492 million for land lease charges.

Luis Miguel Aboitiz, APC senior vice president for power generation, said the company will invest $150 million to rehabilitate and upgrade the Tiwi-MakBan geothermal power complex in the next 4 to 5 years. “The plants are 20-plus years old, so we plan to increase [its capacity] from 462 MW to 517 MW in the next four years,” Aboitiz said.

AP Renewables, a subdiary of APC, won the bidding for the facilities after offering $446.9 million to acquire the 289 MW Tiwi and the 458.53-MW MakBan geothermal power plants.

Aboitiz added they are looking at more possible acquisitions this year in particular the contracts for the independent power producer administrators. He said the company is also interested in bidding for the Luzon hydroelectric plants, namely those in Casecnan, Nueva Vizcaya and in San Roque, Pangasinan.

The firm is also interested to bid for the 600-MW Calaca plant in Batangas and the Limay facility in Bataan.

With the successful sale of the Tiwi-MakBan power complex, PSALM has now sold 14 of the total 31 plants originally owned by the National Power Corp., with a total of 2,597.93 MW of capacity.”

Source: Business Mirror (Philippines)